May 13, 2012

The stump is done!

Finally, I've disconnected the stump! Three days of digging, chopping, sawing, washing...it was worth it, I think. Oh, well, waaaaay too late to second guess and develop a different plan.

The hole actually reached mid-thigh.

Not content with my victory, I started work around the border that will be the third tier.

Photomerge was unable to blend these images, so I just used simple layers. I didn't feel it was necessary to clean up the edges. Too much extra work with no extra gain.

The bottom picture has two lines of text that are barely legible when the image is enlarged. I've learned that a three-stack of pictures is one too many for the blogoshereacising software. The first reads, 'Bricks,' with the red arrow pointing to them. The second reads, 'My grandfather believed that dry stacking bricks around the foundation would help keep rats out.'

I don't know why, but rats were one of the cautionary obsessions with my grandfather. How often did I hear, 'Be careful, there might be rats,' even though there were zero signs of a rat presence. No droppings. No gnawings. No nests. No tunnels. Nothing. Yet, I was supposed to be cautious of them. And, amazingly, I did not succumb and grow up to be scared of them.

As I review and edit my pictures, I have come to regret not taking more pictures of the work in context, with more of the background and surrounding space, the Big Picture, if you will. I am aware of how the work relates to the Big Picture, but my awareness is not the purpose of this blog. The blog is to demonstrate to the reader what kind of work can be done to make a typical suburban yard into a sustainable landscape. Actually, using a term that I've just encountered, this is more of a restoration landscape, which, I hope, will become sustainable. Unfortunately, it will be a few more days before I learn to take more pictures in context.